


An Arrogance of Warlocks

by dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 12:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13998750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd/pseuds/dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd
Summary: As Asher sickens from radiolaria poisoning, Eris pleads with Osiris to save her friend.





	An Arrogance of Warlocks

“It’s getting worse.”

Osiris didn’t look up from the glowing cubes in his palm. “I have no doubt of that.”

Eris stepped forward and slapped them out of his hand. The shimmering portal before them closed with a crack. “You have to  _do_  something.”

The Warlock glared at her, his jaw flexing. “I promise you I don’t.”

She’d come straight from the hospice and the sight of Asher’s gaunt, ravaged body laying on his pallet as he laboured to breathe was fresh in her mind. The radiolaria in his blood was killing him and no one was doing anything about it.

“You’re the only one who can.”

Osiris retrieved his cubes from the floor. “If there are a thousand who could it wouldn’t make any difference.”

* * *

She was there when he opened his eyes. His voice was cracked like dried mud.

“Why do you come, Eris? Nobody else does.”

She listened to the rattle of his breathing. It wasn’t in her nature to give up. “Osiris understands the Vex. If you only asked him—”

Even as he fought for consciousness Asher still found the energy to be indignant. “Understand the Vex, that gaudy bauble? He understands nothing.”

She stood, the chair shooting out beneath her. “Are you so arrogant that you won’t ask for another’s help to save your own life?”

Asher turned his face to the wall. “I have studied the Vex day in, day out. If there was a cure I would have found it. I’m the only one who understands. I’m the only one who—”

Eris picked up the jug of water by his bedside and hurled it to the floor. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces and skittered into corners. “You’re a fool _._  This is why Osiris won’t come to you, because he believes you won’t listen to him. Prove him wrong. Write for him, here, on this parchment, that you will share what you know so you can work together on a cure.”

She held out the writing implements, waiting for him to accept them. But Asher closed his eyes tightly, on her and on the words she was saying.

* * *

“He’s gone.”

Osiris didn’t look up from his datapad. “My condolences.”

“I’ll never forgive you for this.”

He sighed and lowered the pad, lacing his fingers together. His brown eyes met her glowing ones. “Yes, you will.”

“Oh?”

“You will, because you know that even if I’d gone to him he wouldn’t have taken my advice, because that would have meant admitting that someone else knew more about the Vex than he did.”

Eris’s jaw worked, trying to get the words out, to tell Osiris that he was wrong. “He died for  _nothing_.”

“Yes. He did.”

“If you had only gone to him and been tactful about it, said that you were assisting him to get better, helping him with  _his_  studies…” She trailed off, seeing the expression of distaste on Osiris’s face. Anger welled up inside her, at both men, one for refusing to climb down, one for refusing to reach up. Her friend was dead and it was just so pointless.

Osiris reached out to touch her cheek but she jerked away, and when she spoke her voice was venomous. “Damn you to the depths of hell, Osiris. Damn you forever.”

She turned and headed back the way she’d came.

“You know I’m right,” he called after her, his voice echoing off the stone plinths.

She turned back for a moment and saw him silhouetted against the broad fire of the setting sun. “You’re both as bad as each other, you and Asher. None of this was ever about who was  _right_.”


End file.
